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Exalted Modern Firearms
Introduction Guns. Firearms. Gats. Straps. Pieces. Throughout the late history on Earth, the primary weapon of mankind has been metal devices that hurl chunks of smaller metal into other people at very high velocity. This certainly won't change just because people start glowing gold! Magic can change the world. But it won't reformat the world. Guns are here and they're here to stay, in no small part because the Exalted will love them as much as the rest of us. Below one will find the rules for firearms in our world, but first let's explain the basics. Most firearms these days are semiautomatic or better. This means that for each pull of the trigger, you get one round downrange. There are exceptions - primarily bolt-action hunting rifles which are still popular for hunting animals - but in general this is the rule. Many firearms go beyond this with selector switches that allow them to choose multiple operating modes - from those with three-round burst capability, to those which can hose down an entire area with a constant stream of lead. The general rules are these, which should be good guidelines for statting out the weapon you want if the exact model isn't listed below: Weapons small enough to be one-handed, such as pistols and machine pistols, are generally Speed 4. Larger weapons that need to be two-handed, such as assault rifles, carbines, and short shortguns are Speed5, and long-barreled weapons like full rifles are Speed 6. Rate is a function of selection- Semiautomatics have a Rate of 3, those which can fire a three-round burst treat each burst as a single attack with +2 damage, and also have a Rate of 3. Weapons with fully automatic modes need to be carefully controlled, and can fire long bursts of ammunition which do effectively the same thing as a three-round burst (except consuming five rounds,) or they can be used as an area attack (more on this later.) Reloading a weapon's magazine requires taking a Ready Weapon action which, barring stunt or magic, cannot be flurried with an attack with that weapon, excepting the circumstance of drawing and readying a weapon which already has a loaded magazine, which may be flurried as normal. But why? Why are firearms so dominant? For two reasons: The first reason is their ease of use and training. A relatively unskilled mortal can learn to use one fairly effectively over the course of a few weeks' time. He does not suffer the -2 dice penalty for performing an action he is not trained in. The second reason is speed: swinging a sword multiple times in a row requires drawing back and hauling for another swing. Firing a bow repeatedly requires reading another arrow. For a gun, you just pull the trigger again. The initial Flurry penalty for Flurrying with a firearm is halved - round up for mortals, down for Exalts, as normal. Five broad groups encompass most firearms, though some wiggle around somewhat. They are: Pistols, Automatics, Shotguns, Long Rifles, and Machine Guns. Pistols and Shotguns are obvious; Automatics encompass all weapons which fire repeatedly in burst or full automatic modes, from submachineguns up through assault rifles (yes, including those which don't fire at full auto.) Long Rifles are all, well, long rifles that don't fire repeatedly, both semiautomatic long rifles (such as the M1 Garand) and bolt-action rifles (such as the Arctic Warfare Police rifle made infamous by Counter-Strike.) Machine guns are, well, machine guns, from the small squad support weapons up through quad-mounted .50s. These groups are focused enough for Specializations (IE: Marksmanship 3 (Pistols +2, Automatics +1),) and magical effects which are too narrow to target the whole category of firearms, such as being chosen as a Martial Arts Style's Form Weapon. Some weapons slip around somewhat: the CZ Skorpion and other pistols like it, for example, look just like normal pistols but are capable of burst or automatic fire, and the Pancor Jackhammer (if you're one of the people who own one of the two fully functional prototypes) is a fully-automatic shotgun. In these cases, for specialization and magical purposes, they can be considered whatever is most advantageous. Damage paradigm Firearms and larger weapons (such as cannons, or rocket launchers,) deal "Ballistic" (Ba) damage. Armors without a Ba defense rating gain a Ballistic defense rating of 1/2 their Lethal defense rating (rounded down) or their Hardness if applicable (whichever is higher.) Some bullets are Piercing - this hits the Ballistic soak value; so to put it another way, against armor not made to resist gunfire, armor-piercing rounds halve the value of already-halved lethal soak value, or effectively are reduced by only one-quarter of the Lethal soak. Needless to say, Ballistic weapons are very, very dangerous, especially against the unready. However, they have one minor mercy compared to a sword: if the damage of the attack is soaked to its minimum damage, the damage is converted to Bashing, as only the comparatively minor kinetic force of the impact gets through to the target. Burst Fire and Automatic Fire Weapons which are semiautomatic give you one bullet per trigger pull. Weapons which are fully automatic give you lead downrange until you run out of lead. Then there are those which are built with burst fire modes (typically 3-rounds, but 5 is not unknown.) Burst Fire Burst fire comes about in two modes - typically most modern weapons have a selector switch for a three-round burst, but skilled shooters can also control the number of bullets released by their weapon in it's fully automatic mode of fire. Using a weapon with a full auto mode to let off bursts of ammunition allows you to shoot as few as 7-your applicabile Ability + Specialization score, or as many as you want. (IE, Joe Gang-Banger with only Marksman 0, Automatics 2, can only fire a five-round burst, he doesn't have the control to fire off a three-round burst, or he could choose to fire off a 7 or 9 round burst.) But what does it do? Here's what it does: For the first two bullets above the first, damage is increased by +1 per bullet. For every two bullets after that, damage is increased by +1 per two, to a maximum of 9. (Anything beyond that is beyond the realm of long bursts and into the realm of fully automatic fire.) To make that simple: Automatic Fire Rocking and Rolling - busting out slugs to the beat of the bass - Going Rambo - the real stuff! Letting off excessively long bursts from a fully automatic firearm is catharsis second only to a Valor-flaw Solar Limit Break; and for those in your immediate vicinity, very nearly as deadly. There are two ways to use fully automatic fire. You can attempt to concentrate it all on one person or thing, or you can hose down an area - generally this should simply be thematically and dramatically determined, such as "I'm hosing down all the guys sticking their heads up out of that trench," or "I'm hosing down the front of this building to get the guys in the windows," but if you really want to be pedantic (and show off your geometry degree,) calculate it as a cone (Dexterity + Ability (+Specializations) + Essence) x3 degrees wide. (Yes, this means an Exalt with Essence 10, Dexterity 10, Marksmanship 10 and a +3 specialization will be able to hose down 330 of 360 degrees. We here at the "Exalts are Awesome, Essence 10 Exalts are omega-awesome" desk don't have a problem with this. ShadowDragon8685 01:29, June 17, 2010 (UTC)) When concentrating your fire on one person or thing, you triple post-soak damage taken taken and your attack becomes Undodgeable unless they at minimum use a Stunt to dive behind cover or concealment. When hosing an area down, you get to compare the result of your attack roll to the damage value of everyone in the affected area and apply damage to all of them. In both cases, you halve your attack pool - but impose an Onslaught penalty of -3 to all targets before you begin firing. Any target whose DV is surpressed to 0 or below in this way is hit automatically, regardless of whether you scored even a single success on your attack roll. You also take a -3 penalty to your own defense for concentrating the time on the fully automatic fire - which is a Speed 6, Rate 1 action regardless of the weapon's other stats. Each time you go fully auto, it consumes 60 rounds or however many are left in your magazine, whichever is less. (STs should feel free to limit the acceptable choice of target for low ammunition, and should refuse to allow a fully automatic engagement with 9 or fewer rounds - that's a Long Burst (see above). The initial halving of the shooter's dice pool does not apply for a weapon which is either mounted (such as the machine gun on top of a Humm-Vee) or braced (such as a bipod-deployed squad support weapon.) This makes attacks from even mortals with such weapons exceedingly, extremely dangerously deadly. '' ProTip: Standing in front of a machinegun aimed at you tends to get you on the Darwin Awards, even if you're a young Exalt, unless you're ready to face the fire!'' Ammunition Types As much as there is a bewildering array of metal penises ejaculating tiny metal wads of lead into other human's faces, there are as many forms of ammunition to be used. Some of it is common, some of it is heinously illegal. All of it can and will be used by player characters in their quest to kill other human beings faster and more terminally. :Full Metal Jacket The default assumption, FMJ rounds are the most common around. They don't have any special characteristics, and the Hague Convention of 1899 requires their use in all warfare as they are considered more humane. :Jacketed Hollow Point and Hollowpoint JHP and HP ammunition are functionally the same in terms of game mechanics; JHP is simply easier on your barrels than HP. They decrease penetration, but improve expansion, resulting in more damage and less effect against armor. *JHP and HP deal +2 dice of Lethal damage to the target, but if the target has a Ballistic armor rating of 1 or higher, improve the value by +3, resulting in a slight net loss for the JHP and HP rounds. **JHP and HP aren't much more expensive than FMJ (10%), but they tend to be more restricted by law. :Frangible/Expanding Frangible rounds or rounds specifically designed to mushroom impressively are designed to minimize penetration, maximizing gross tissue damage. It's common to make these out of normal FMJ or other common rounds with a simple small saw or knife capable of cutting the (typically lead and brass jacket,) but this is extremely illegal in most every locality imaginable, and on a botch should cause the weapon to explode, dealing damage to the firer as if he had shot himself with it. *Frangible rounds deal +3L damage, and against mortals convert their post-soak damage to Aggravated if it didn't downgrade to Bashing. However, it doubles the target's Ballistic soak around the round. **Frangible rounds tend to be more expensive regular rounds when purpose-bought (50% more expensive,) but the extra price is probably justified since you don't want your gun to explode in your face. :Less-Lethal From beanbag shotgun rounds to rubber bullets, Less-Lethal rounds were and remain in some places preferred to actual bullets for dealing with civil unrest and disobedient but not life-threatening targets. Largely supplanted by the tazer for it's lessened lethality, these Less-Lethal rounds can still be used to knock the wind out of someone. *Less-Lethal rounds (also, rock salt loaded into a shotgun shell) deal Bashing damage instead of Ballistic by default. **Less-Lethal rounds cost 40% more than the basic round to aquire, and tend to be restricted. Of course, rock salt's not restricted... :Shot Rounds The Boomstick. The legendary slayer of zombies, aliens, and anything else Rednecks wage war with on a regular basis. It's all made possible by Shot-shells, firing a number of thick metal balls that spread through the air. Video games would have you believe the spread is impossibly quick, almost like setting off a fragmentation grenade that only has a 90-degree cone ahead of you, but this is simply untrue. Shotgun shot does spread, but not nearly as much as the movies and the video games would have you believe. In other words, you're not buying one and getting one free with this unless you're at the extreme maximum ranges. *What it does do is change the range paradigm! Within the first range increment, shot shells (which are assumed to be Buckshot and not Birdshot) gain +3L damage and an Overwhelming value of 3. Within the second range increment, they recieve no bonuses, and within the third range increment, they suffer -4 to their damage after soak, which can result in stinging grazes that aren't sufficient to cause damage. They don't suffer any range penalties to the attack roll, however. **Birdshot is incredibly unsuited to killing anything larger or tougher than a buzzard. If forced to do combat with Birdshot, treat all attacks as being in the third range category, barring some kind of stunt like firing at point-blank range. Birdshot costs no more than Buckshot. **Slug rounds cost no more than Buck, either, and they simply reverse the range paradigm back to normal. No extra damage for being up close and personal, no loss of damage for shooting at far range, but you suffer the normal penalties for shooting far. :Tracers: Tracer Rounds are used for training and aeronautic applications, but they may also be preferred by the ground-bound shooter for one reason or another. Modern tracers (most modern tracers, anyway) only ignite to full brightness after a hundred yards' flight or so, thus making them not work both ways; others emit only in the infra-red spectrum, or use bright LEDs instead of burning materials. Those which incorporate an incindiary substance can be used to ignite flammable objects. *Tracer Rounds invert Flurrying. For example, if your dice pools for three attacks would be 8, 7, and 6 dice, you start with the 6-die attack and end with the 8-die attack. **Tracer Rounds can be most other sorts of rounds (barring shotgun shot-shells,) and add 10% to the price; assuming you can find the heinously illegal things at all. **All known calibers are made with Tracer variants. :Overpressure Ammunition With the advances in modern metallurgy, handguns are capable of handling chamber pressures that in years gone by would have blown the slide clear into the shooter's mouth. Overpressure ammunition, also designated as +P and +P+, is basically the same concept of the Magnum rounds before it - a higher barrel pressure equals more stopping power, applied to rounds which were not traditionally made into Magnums. +P+ ammunition adds +1 damage to the round being fired and is available in essentially all the variations (Russia, for instance, instead of going with a new exotic handgun round made for penetration, simply upped the barrel pressure and added a steel core penetrator to the venerable 9x19mm parabellum), for +300% ammunition cost. The downside, of course, is that a botched roll causes the weapon to explode instead of merely jamming or having something like the magazine fall out. (Shooter takes damage as if they'd scored a no-net-successes hit on themselves, resisted normally by soak.) :Armor-Piercing and Steel Cored rounds *This is simple. Armor-piercing rounds cost 100% more than the basic round. They add the Piercing tag. Amunition Calibers The primary determinor of the damage a firearm inflicts is the caliber of the round. Secondary determinors are the length of the barrel (which can increase the damage by +1 or even +2 if the barrel is especially longer than normal; even decrease it in some rare cases!) and the type of ammunition used, but primarily it's the ammunition caliber. I'll spare you the history lesson. You know how to get to Wikipedia, I trust. All costs listed are rough estimates, and are listed per round. :Shotgun damage is simple: 20 ga = 8L, 12 ga = 9L, and 8 ga = 10L. :It should go without saying that all listed damages for firearms are straight damage values and do not add the firer's strength value. But it doesn't, because somewhere, somewhen, there's going to be some asshole who tries it. There you go, that guy made me write this pointless and insulting caveat. He ruined it for the rest of us. =Armaments= Pistols The pistol was known as the Great Equalizer, and this is no less true today than it was in the 1880s. Even an old man or an unmuscled woman can kill a big brute with one - no less dead than he could kill them with a club and his arms. Their greatest advantage is their concealability - they can be easily hidden under baggy or large clothing, and some are small enough to be easily hidden in a pocket or behind the waistband of a pair of denim jeans or within a coatsleeve. They put a great deal of lethality into a small, concealable package, and for this governments frequently regulate or outright ban their use - not that this has stopped even a single person who wanted to have one for criminal reasons from having one. Pistols themselves can be subdivided into a fairly great many groups - there are targeting pistols, sporting competition pistols, combat pistols, holdout pistols, and true machine pistols which invade on the territory of Submachine Guns... The array is mind-boggling, so let's show you some. Target Pistols High Standard Typical of target pistols, the High Standard .22 is long-ranged for a pistol with a very high degree of accuracy. It was also manufactured with an integral silencer as the High Standard HDM, a silenced weapon issued to American spies during the second World War. Holdout/CCW Pistols Walther The Walther PPK. You say the name and automatically the image of legendary superspy James Bond, MI6 agent 007, a mortal man whose exploits verge on being those of the Exalted, comes to mind. Too bad he's fictional - but his gun isn't. Ian Flemming did more for Walther's sales than anything short of all other gun-makers in the world being reduced to atoms could have done, and it's not entirely deserved. It's true that in typical German style the Walther's accuracy is much higher than it has any right to be, but nothing can save it from the fact that it's a holdout pistol. The damage is insufficient in general, the magazine size is small (even with one in the pipe,) and the round is just a bit too weak. However, this doesn't prevent it from being extremely easily concealed, fast on the draw; and of course, it's the legendary weapon of 007. If you need a pistol, you can do worse than the PPK; if you need a weapon which is concealable above all other concerns, it's hard to do better. Though it is worth noting that as of Tomorrow Never Dies and beyond, James Bond carries a Walther P99... Glock Swiss Arms AG The issue sidearm of the United States Secret Service, the SIG Sauer P229 is a modern concealed carry weapon. Not as slim or as small as the near-mythical Walther PPK, it's not as concealable, but is much more concealable than a full-sized P226. Battle Pistols Beretta The Beretta 92F is the current service pistol of the United States military. This Beretta series comes in a large number of minor variations. The current issue handgun of the United States military for most applications, the Beretta 92F; formally known in Pentagonese as the Pistol, Semiautomatic, 9mm, M9 (fortunately they refrained from labeling it the Launcher, Pistol Cartridge, 9x19mm) is archtypical of semiautomatic combat pistols - versions of it are issued to military and police forces the world over; for example, it's the carry pistol of the NYPD. It's the beginning of a class of weapon often derided as the "Wonder Nines," that is, handguns with very large magazines chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum. Oddly enough, the same reason that the military and the police love them - their huge magazines - makes them hate them in the hands of others. Early versions were known for a problem wherein the slide could jump off the pistol and into the shooter's mouth ("You aint' a SEAL 'till you've ate Italian steel!"), though this problem has been corrected. Ceska Zbrojovka The CZ-75 is a pistol that fits snugly into the mold of the "Wonder 9s" which became popular in the last quarter of the 1900s and endure into the early 2000s, notable for their 9x19mm ammunition, decent size for a handgun, and large magazine capacity. This particular model is the original version, distinguishable by the curved trigger-guard and spurred hammer, and being constructed from the strongest grade of steel ever used in a handgun, resulting in supreme accuracy. The weapon was offered with a few variants, the only one of notable mention featuring a selector switch capable of fully automatic fire. Colt The Colt M1911's design began in the late 1890s, and it was officially adopted as a service pistol by the United States army in 1911; hence the M1911 designation. This weapon is the grandfather of all modern battle pistols, being similar in size and construction to all of them. The big .45 ACP rounds it fires aren't considered very accurate over much distance, but it packs a lot of hurt, being launched from a nicely-sized barrel. It's also too old a weapon (and too large a round) to readily use the double-stack method of ammunition storage common in the Wonder Nines of the mid and late 1900s, so the ammunition capacity is low. However, it is still a very popular, well-known weapon. The upside of this is that so many variants have been made over the years, and in such quantity, that it's relatively easy to assemble a Fine, Exceptional, or even Perfect personal variant, simply by having a gunsmith pick and choose from the best parts in the best condition available to him. It'll cost, though. FN Herstal The Five-seveN was designed to do one thing and one thing only: provide a military service-pistol that would compliment the FN P90 in using FN's proprietary ammunition, making it a more attractive buy to those who were thinking of buying the P90 but didn't like the fact that the P90's ammo was exclusive to it alone, thus complicating the logistics train. That said, however, the Five-seveN is proving to be very popular with civilian target shooters, once FN Herstal came out with a civilian version and a non-AP version of the round. Glock Glock is one of the most prolific handgun manufacturers on the face of the planet Earth. They produce a staggeringly huge array of polymer-framed pistols which are lightweight, easy to carry, and have massive ammunition capacities. In the United States alone, fully 65% of law enforcement agencies issue a Glock handgun. *Glock handguns designated by the appearance of the letter "C" are Compensated, having ported barrels and slides to let some of the muzzle gas help control recoil. *The 18/18C pistols are machine pistols, selectable between single fire and fully automatic. *Pistols designated "SF" are short-framed. They have a 2.5mm shorter trigger travel and the heel is 4mm narrower. Primarily this is for the comfort of smaller-handed shooters. *Glock 25 and 28 pistols are not available to the general public in the U.S., because a small pistol chambered for .380 ACP does not meet the "sporting purposes" criteria for the importation of pistols under the gun control act of 1968, according the BATFE's point system. Smith & Wesson The current weapon holding the title of the Smith & Wesson Military & Police couldn't be farther removed from it's revolver origins unless it were a submachine pistol. An all-new, polymer-framed, short recoil operated, locked breech semi-automatic pistol, this was first rolled out in the summer of 2005, and is an approved duty weapon for numerous police and Federal Agencies throughout the United States, and is sold to various other official organizations the world over. A next-generation Wonder Nine, it's remarkable primarily for it's larger-than-average magazine capcity for it's size in comparison to most weapons in the size category of the version one has, especially when comparing the non-nine chamberings to other weapons. The Compact and Full Size models, marketed to the Agencies and Police Departments, come in chamberings of 9x19mm, .40 S&W, and .357 SIG, so as to be capable of loading the same ammunition pool as the given department's issue weapon; the Pro series and other variations are chambered in a melange of 9x19mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Swiss Arms AG Formerly SIG Swiss Arms AG, and distributed in the United States as SIG Sauer. The SIG P200 series started with the P225, developed in the mid-70s as a service pistol for german states. Since then it has been expanded upon, expounded upon, and it has come to be known as a rock-solid, dependable, modern service pistol chambered for .45 ACP. In many ways it can be seen as a modern weapon filling the same niche as the M1911. It has a single-stack magazine, so the capacity isn't terribly great, even with the availability extended magazines that come with grip extenders. It's worth noting that the magazines for all versions are interchangable, so you can, say, fit the ten-round extended magazine for the main 220 onto the P220 Compact, if you really want to. Beloved of law enforcement and military agencies the world over, the SIG P226 was adopted by the U.S. Marine Corp and SEALs after too many early adopters of the Beretta 92F needed emergency dental work. While Beretta ultimately fixed the flaws, neither the Corps nor the SEALs saw any reason to slink back to what was felt to be an all-around inferior product. Manufactured to typically high German standards of engineering, the SIG Sauer P226 is an amazingly serviceable firearm. Those with 'Tactical' or 'Combat TB' in the name are typically extra-long barreled and usually threaded to accept a surpressor. The X-Five is a competition version. Among other features, it ships with a factory test target which has shot a test grouping of five shots under one-inch from 25 meters, and it's accuracy is legendary. The Elite is known for having a 60% faster trigger reset for use during high-speed competition shooting, and is legendarily fast to fire. Penile Enhancers Magnum Research/Israeli Military Industries The go-to weapon when the movies want a "big handgun," the Desert Eagle is an impractical weapon which has appeared in over five-hundred feature films (and counting) and is owned primarily by men who seek to enhance their own sense of penile self-worth by owning what they perceive to be the biggest, baddest handgun on the market, and movie studios for the use in films. Compared to most other handguns, even ones of similar size and power, the Desert Eagle in all of its incarnations is well-known for its drastic recoil. As such, one-handing it is simply not an option for most people, but the Storyteller would like to remind all who are thinking of owning a Desert Eagle about the rule that you can use a two-handed weapon one-handed without penalty if you have thrice the required attribute score. So, just as an Exalt with a Strength rating of 9 could wield a Grand Daiklaive in one hand, anyone with Stamina 3 could one-hand many of the smaller Desert Eagles, while it only takes the slightly-superhuman Stamina score of 6 to wield even the heaviest of them one-handed. Smith & Wesson The Smith & Wesson Model 29 needs absolutely no introduction to anyone for whom the words "do you feel lucky, punk?" bring to mind the image of "Dirty" Harry Callahan. While Callahan was lying when he said that it could blow a man's head clean off, and exaggerating when he said it was the most powerful handgun in the world (though it was at the time the most powerful production handgun in the world,) the Model 29 in four different barrel lengths is a perfectly serviceable and powerful revolver, reliable and rugged, suitable for use as a self-defense weapon when hunting big game, or when one happens to be a duster-wearing, hard-boiled private eye. Note that the weapon is not offered in separate chambering for .44 Magnum and .44 Special, it is only offered for .44 Magnum. As the former is a development of the latter which primarily entailed extending the brass somewhat and upping the barrel pressure, any weapon chambered for .44 Magnum can accept and fire .44 Special, while the reverse is not true. Hence, the S&W Model 29 can take and fire .44 Special ammunition if it happens to be available while the intended .44 Magnum is not. Revolvers Smith & Wesson Originally designed in the last year of the 1800s, the firearm currently known as the Model 10 was the original Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolver, and this weapon was the reason that .38 revolvers became synonymous with police the world over. It's an unremarkable weapon, but it is a popular step-up for those few who feel that a .22 is insufficient for use and a 9mm is too heavy. It will certainly serve to kill a person dead if the need arises, though it's really too large to be a good clinch piece. Automatics Machine Pistols Submachine guns are some of the most versatile weapons in the world; generally considered to be midway between a pistol and an assault rifle or carbine, a submachinegun is neither, and typically has neither the big advantage of concealability (which pistols are noted - and frequently regulated for) or firepower (as they don't generally chamber the same kind of round or develop the same kind of barrel pressures a carbine or rifle generates.) So why are they so beloved? There's many reasons, and Submachineguns can be fairly sub-divided into machine pistols and full submachineguns, with varying stages in between them. Why such variety? Because they fill a huge gulf in the world of weaponry - where a pistol will not do the job, but where a rifle is too bulky and unwieldly to be used. In recent decades the rifle has made some inroads into that category with bullpup designs firing a full rifle cartridge with the reciever nestled close to the rifleman's armpit, but by and large the submachinegun is still the king - and for good reason. The sheer variety they come in, even before thinking about options like choosing a chambering other than is usual, and accessories such as sighs and surpressors, is staggering. Each of them was built to fill a niche - from being a close-quarter combat weapon for soldiers, like the H&K Mp4 and IMI Uzi - and before them, such venerables as the Sten, Thompson, and Mp44 from the World Wars era - to being designed to be sold as cheaply as possible to the criminal element, like the Ingram MAC 10, to weapons with unusual and hugely expansive magazines, like the Calico and Bison. A submachinegun brings the benefits of rapid fire and expansive magazines to pistol calibers, with effective results. For sanity's sake, submachine guns are being divided between "machine pistols", weapons which can be used in one hand, and the rest (such as the Tommy Gun and the FN P90) are being lumped in with carbines. Ingram :Ingram MAC-10 It's the iconic "bad machine pistol" of the modern age. Though it has the same ammunition capacity and fires the same rounds as the weapon is was obviously designed to resemble, the IMI Uzi, the MAC-10 lacks it everywhere it counts; it's accuracy is woeful, and it's range is abominable. It's the iconic drive-by weapon for poor urban gangsters because it's only realistically useful for spray-and-pray action; this will sometimes kill the person they're hoping to kill, and sometimes not. It usually winds up killing someone they didn't intend to kill, whether or not it hit the intended target. Israeli Military Industries The Isreali Military Industries Uzi competes with the H&K Mp5 for the title of the most iconic submachinegun of the mid to late 20th and early 21st century, and it easily is the most iconic machine pistol of that peroid when seen without the stock. The most common model uses the most prolifically available ammunition in the world, the 9x19mm Parabellum, with the standard 32-round magazine but alternative chamberings and magazine sizes are available: *.22LR (3L) with a 16-round magazine *9x19mm comes in 20, 25, 32, 40, 50, and 100 round magazines, most of them designed by IMI, some not. *.40 Smith & Wesson, 10mm Auto (Also 4L) have 20-round magazines. *.41 AE and .45 ACP (5L) have 10-round magazines, and generally aren't reccomended for use in an Uzi at full auto. The Uzi also has two miniature versions in common use: the Mini and Micro Uzis, both of which are only commonly available in 9x19mm Parabellum. It's worth noting that the magazines for the larger Uzi will fit into the smaller Uzis, but the reverse is not true, and fitting a magazine for a larger Uzi to a smaller one results in much of the magazine's internal length being exposed, increasing the chance of ammunition misfeeds. *The Mini Uzi can take a specially made 32 round magazine which is bulked up at the bottom to eliminate this problem; it also feeds from 25 and 20 round magazines. The Micro Uzi is only made for a 20-round magazine, but can of course use any magazine made for the larger Uzis. **The Mini Uzi and Micro Uzi's primary benefit is their concealability. Heckler & Koch It's safe to say that the H&KMp5 and it's many, many variants, are the single most widely used submachinegun in existance. Sold to law enforcement, paramilitary, and military forces the world over, it's a favorite and for good reason. Larger than the Uzi, it's not as concealable, and the default box magazine has a smaller capacity - but it being larger, it has much, much more potential for accessorization. Practically speaking, for a good shooter the matter will come down to preference, and a bad shooter shouldn't be allowed to get his hands on either of them. The H&K Mp5's most modern revisions feature trigger groupings which have fully automatic modes of fire, three-round burst modes, and single shot modes (as well as safeties, of course.) The Mp5K is the short - Kurtz, in German - version of the Mp5. It's much more concealable than the full-sized version, features a vertical foregrip instead of the standard horizontal one, and a much shorter barrel. It also comes with a stylish, attractive carrying case which looks much like a briefcase that conceals a loaded and readied submachinegun that can be fired by pulling a trigger mounted on the briefcase's handle. Some models come with a proprietary side-folding stock, and in this version it is marketed and sold as a PDW to military vehicle crew and other personelle who would normally be issued a pistol but who may feel pistols inadequate to the tasks at hand. All versions of the Mp5 accept H&K made standard 15- and 30-round box magazines. There also exist Beta C-Mags for the design, featuring 100-round capacity. The H&K Mp7 is a direct competitor with the FN P90 as a next-generation PDW. Firing a proprietary 4.6x30mm round that resembles a miniature rifle round in profile and is only used in one other, similarly-rare weapon made by H&K (the H&K UCP pistol,) the ammunition is expensive, but effective - if one can find it. The rounds fired are made entirely of brass-jacketed steel, and are very effective armor-penetrators. It has available 20 and 40 round box magazines, and is made with the expected precision - and pricetag - of H&K equipment. It comes with a built-in sliding stock, and can mount all the usual accessories. Carbines Auto Ordnance Corporation A true classic and the father of modern submachineguns, the legendary Chicago Typewriter is iconic of the Roaring 20s as the weapon of choice for outlaws, inlaws and lawmen alike. In truth it was never as popular as the movies would have it believed; the civilian version was very expensive - half of the cost of a brand new automobile! The civilian versions had reliability issues, and the legendary drum magazines were awkwardly heavy. The military versions produced specifically for the second World War weren't capable of mounting the drums in any event. Still, nobody who's ever gotten their hands on one and had to do battle with it in close quarters has ever felt it insufficient. It's heavy .45 ACP round combined with it's long barrel makes it lethal. The rate of fire is, whilst fully automatic, low enough that even relatively inexperienced shooters can easily control their bursts, and the Tommy Gun is more accurate than most people give .45s and old weapons credit for; while it can't stand up in accuracy compared to today's weapons, those who've seen it used have said that a skilled shooter could easily stitch their names into a wall. The 50-round drum was the standard, but they also made 20-round box magazines and 100-round drums. With the M1 and M1A1 models, the Tommy Guns being sent off to war with the Tommies of America couldn't mount the drums, and so Thompson produced a 30-round box magazine. FN Herstal Though generally considered a submachinegun, the P90 is distinguished from most submachine guns by there being no way, no how, you're using the thing in one hand. It's simply too bulky; the H&K Mp5 is pushing it for one-handing a machine pistol, the P90 is right out. In form and function, it has no resemblance to a machine pistol. But that's fine. The P90 has an abominably huge magazine, fast rate of fire, relatively light recoil, and an armor-penetrating round. It's also not sized so much like a machine pistol as a bullpup carbine, though it uses FN's over-the-top stick magazine. This is reflected in the use it was put to: although it was developed and marketed as a submachinegun PDW for vehicle drivers and crews to use in self-defense when forced to dismount, it's found it's niche with SWAT teams and special forces and counter-terrorism forces who put it to offensive use. Colt Shotguns They're not concealable (usually,) and they're seldom the best choice for long-range action, but it is true that it can be safely said that if a man needs a weapon and cannot afford to buy the specific weapon tailored for each of his needs, he should buy a shotgun. Pump Action Thanks to legislation introduced in the United States in the mid-1900sm shotgun technology has mostly stagnated in comparison to the advancements of most other weapons. The "standard," generic shotgun, of which all of the above models may be considered, is a pump-action long-barreled weapon feeding from a tubular magazine under the barrel. Reloading them is slow in comparison to reloading other weapons (absent a stunt or a Charm, each Ready Action weapon made to ready a shotgun only loads the Shooter's Dexterity in shotgun cartridges,) on par with manually feeding single cartridges into a bolt-action rifle's internal magazine. Many of them are patterned heavily after one another, and in some cases (such as the Norinco and Ithica models) are direct copies (to the point of parts interchangeability) of popular shotguns invented by other companies whose patents have expired but are still in active production by their designer because they can't introduce anything newer. However, this simplification does very little to address the true range of accessories and variants available upon these concepts. The Remmington 870 Marine, for example, is meant for maritime use, and is going to be very different from the Remmington 870 Super Magnum, and the Mossberg 500 field models will be very different from the Law Enforcement model. These have then been chosen to represent the group of "shotguns" as a whole, for spreading out nicely in the group, rather than to be a comprehensive and exhaustive list of all shotgun models and variants, which could take an entire book to itself and would probably be filled with row upon row of more or less identical game statistics varying primarily in the magazine capacity. Those who want a specific type of pump-action shotgun (for example, a Mossberg 500 Law Enforcement) are advised to ask the Gun Statter to produce the statistics for the given model you require Semiautomatic A hodgepodge of federal, state and local laws make owning one of these semiautomatic tactical shotguns more of a crapshoot than one can shoot crap with the gun itself. The unlucky civilian owner might find his weapon is described as an "illegal assault copkiller murderdevice" and find himself thrown promptly into a supermax slam simply because it has an aggressive-looking pistol grip and matte-black low-visibility finish. Needless to say, these laws seldom impact criminals (for whom the gun-control laws mean nothing) and official agencies (for whom the gun-control laws mean nothing.) More technically advanced than their pump-action predecessors, most semiautomatic shotguns still feed from a tubular magazine under the barrel, which effectively doubles the barrel's weight and forces forward the center of gravity. Additionally, the semiautomatics have trouble with less-lethal rounds such as beanbags and tear gas rounds, as they tend to lack sufficient pressure to operate the semiautomatic mechanism. Using such a round in one of these shotguns with any more rounds in the cylinder essentially garuntees a jam that will require a Ready Weapon action to fix. The SPAS-12 gets around this by featuring a dual-operation semiautomatic and pump-action method of use. The SPAS-15 is one of the rarer semiautomatic shotguns, in that it feeds from a box magazine like most rifles; and looks like most rifles. It likewise features the dual-operation mode, however. Automatic Shotguns Automatic shotguns are more myth than mayhem. Thanks to the legislation introduced by the United States, and the general lack of a good reason for them (since in most cases the projected users would be happier with an automatic,) almost all automatic shotguns were flashes in the pan, with a few prototypes produced, showed to the military who said "that's nice, cool gun," and promptly ignored the project until it's developers went bankrupt or dropped the issue. Of all the automatic shotguns ever designed, only the Daewoo USAS-12 has seen full production. It's primarily confined to Southeast Asia, and it goes without saying that possessing one in the United States is more illegal than shooting a Governor. The others were only made up to the prototype stages... But it's certainly not inconcievable that some Twilight-caste genius might start building his own for fun and profit. Fully automatic buckshot has the advantage that in very close quarters, it can generate amounts of ballistic mayhem that one would be hard-pressed to reproduce short of a very large explosive device lined with fifty pounds of shrapnel. It's easily capable of generating the kind of damage that would otherwise need a Grand Daiklaive to produce. As this level of overkill is wasted on human beings and armored vehicles with their high Hardness values laugh at buckshot, these are very much "niche" weapons - though with the rise of magic and potential reintroduction of behemoths and other creatures which are too small and crafty to be effectively engaged with light antivehicle weapons and have ridiculous numbers of health boxes, it's possible they might actually see a second coming after all. :*It costs considerably less for the Asian agency-buyers to procure it. Cost listed is to get a black-market import into the United States. :**The Pancor's 10-round drums have the feature to be fitted with a detonator and laid as an antipersonel mine. This feature is known as "Beartrap." Long Rifles The civilian hunting rifle today is essentially the same weapon soldiers took to the field with in the early 1900s. They may be fitted with fiberglass furniture and modern recoil pads, optical scopes that the snipers of the first and second World Wars could only have dreamed of, but they are essentially the same weapon. It's the archtypical rifle, and in the hands of a skilled shooter, it will still serve as a magnificent sniper's weapon. It has an internal magazine, typically five rounds, a bolt-action mechanism, a long barrel and a scope with a fixed stock and a non-pistol grip. The Winchester Model 70 is still archtypical of the weapon, despite the wide variety of manufacturers and variants and accessories. Bolt-Action Rifles Winchester Repeating Arms Company & U.S. Repeating Arms One of the most prolific long rifles in existance, the Winchester Model 70 is an iconic bolt-action rifle. The number of variants produced are astounding; it has been manufactured in a dizzying plethora of chamberings. Versions of the rifle are marketed for police and military use by Fabrique Nationale, and in the .30-06 chambering it was the weapon with which the legendary sniper USMC Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock made his legendarily long-ranged shots, including (presumably) the shot he took on an opposing sniper's scope that took out the enemy sniper. Semi-Automatic Rifles Barrett Firearms Manufacturing The final word in 'not fucking around,' the Barret 'Light' .50 Caliber anti-materiel rifle is the heaviest weapon you can find short of an actual anti-tank rifle. Machine Guns Category:Exalted